1 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
Product Environmental Footprint and some resource related activities
Rana Pant, Erwin M. Schau, Karen Allacker,
Lucia Mancini, Marco Recchioni
European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) Institute for Environment and Sustainability
Sustainability Assessment Unit
2 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
Agenda
• Introduction – Joint Research Centre (JRC) and it’s role
• Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)
• PEF Category Rules (PEFCR) development
• Related activities
• Summary
3 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
Who are we and what do we do?
The JRC is the European Commission’s in-house science service. It
provides the science for policy decisions, with a view to ensuring
that the EU achieves its Europe 2020 goals for a productive
economy as well as a safe, secure and sustainable future.
The JRC plays a key role in the European Research Area and
reinforces its multidisciplinarity by networking extensively with
leading scientific organisations in the Member States, Associated
Countries and worldwide.
4 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
The JRC inside the European Commission
Commissioner
Mairé Geoghegan-Quinn
Research, Innovation & Science
President
José Manuel Barroso
27 Commission Members
DG Research & Innovation (RTD)
Director-General
Dominique Ristori
Joint Research Centre
5 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
The JRC inside the European Commission
“The mission of the IES is to provide scientific-technical support to the European Union's policies for the protection and sustainable development of the European and global environment”
European Commission,
Joint Research Centre (JRC),
Institute for Environment and
Sustainability (IES)
6 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
Agenda
• Introduction – Joint Research Centre (JRC) and it’s role
• Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)
• PEF Category Rules (PEFCR) development
• Related activities
• Summary
7 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
Sustainable Consumption and Production Action Plan, 2008: “To implement this policy, consistent and reliable data and methods are required to asses the overall environmental performance of products …” ;
The Resource Efficiency Roadmap, 2011: Establish a common methodological approach to enable Member States and the private sector to assess, display and benchmark the environmental performance of products, services and companies based on a comprehensive assessment of environmental impacts over the life-cycle ('environmental footprint')
Building the Single Market for Green Products, 2013: Commission COM(2013) 196 final and Recommendation (2013/179/EU) related to
the Product Environmental Footprint and Organisation Environmental Footprint to “improve the availability of clear, reliable and comparable information on the environmental performance of products and organisations to all relevant stakeholders, including to players along the entire supply chain.”
EC Environmental Footprint as a common method to
calculate the life cycle environmental impact of
products and organisations
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Objectives
• Provide comprehensive evaluation along the entire life cycle
(upstream and downstream)
• Provide comprehensive coverage of potential environmental
impacts (no ‘single issue’ method)
• Ensure comparability
• Quality (coherence and quality assurance)
• Build on existing methods
• Be applicable without having to consult a series of other documents
9 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
Where does the EF fit?
Carbon footprint
Water footprint
……..
ISO14001, EMAS
ISO14025
ISO14044
Chemical footprint
Environmental footprint
10 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
How was the PEF Guide Developed?
Environmental assessment documents analysed:
ISO 14044
ISO 14067
BP X 30-323
PAS 2050
Ecological footprint
ILCD
Product Standards,
Greenhouse Gas Protocol
(WRI/ WBCSD)
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Analysis of existing environmental assessment methods:
Have many strengths
Not sufficient to serve as a recommended harmonised method for Europe
What is needed:
Several guides/methods for the environmental
assessment exist, but
12 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
More detailed info on how to
comprehensively assess
environmental impacts of
products and organisations
Specific guides for sectors, if they are
to be used for comparisons
Guidelines on data quality
requirements, review and reporting
Further narrowing of calculation
choices, especially if to be used for
comparisons
Analysis: Identified Tasks
What is needed:
13 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
EC PEF method: LCA based method with
• FULL SCOPE
• all products
• all life cycle stages
• comprehensive list of environmental impact categories
• HIGH LEVEL OF TECHNICAL DETAIL - AND PRESCRIPTIVENESS
essential to obtain more consistent and comparable results
nomenclature
data quality
Allocation (co-products and EoL)
cut-off
impact assessment
biogenic carbon removals and emissions
temporary carbon storage
…
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Strict data quality requirements
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Environmental footprint impact assessment
EF impact categories (14+)
Climate change
Ozone depletion
Ecotoxicity - aquatic, fresh water
Human toxicity – cancer effects
Human toxicity - non-cancer effects
Particulate Matter / Respiratory inorganics
Ionising Radiation – human health effects
Photochemical Ozone Formation
Acidification
Eutrophication - terrestrial
Eutrophication - aquatic
Resource depletion - water
Resource depletion – mineral, fossil and renewable
Land use
…
From Carbon
Footprint to
Environmental
Footprint
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Agenda
• Introduction – Joint Research Centre (JRC) and it’s role
• Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)
• PEF Category Rules (PEFCR) development
• Related activities
• Summary
17 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
The EC PEF/OEF method and PEFCRs / OEFSRs
No Guide (flexible but ad hoc decisions)
ISO 14040 and ISO 14044
ILCD Handbook
Environmental Footprint
OEFSR: OEF Sector Rules
Increasing
• reproducibility
• comparability
• consistency
By providing
• technical detail
• choices that limit variability
• clear guidance
ILCD: International Reference Life Cycle Data System
Category/Sector Rules
PEFCR: PEF Category Rules
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… which is realized through (non exhaustive list)
• Directing the focus on the most important parameters
Processes/activities to be included (system boundary)
Impact categories and other environmental information
Downstream scenarios (use, transport, distribution, storage, end of life)
• Further specifying data and data quality requirements
for which processes specific data shall be collected or use of generic data
the requirements for collection of specific data
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Multiple stakeholders involved in a structured open process
*EF virtual consultation Forum: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/wikis
Steering Committee
Technical Secretariat
Stakeholders
NGOs and Industry (Federations and individual companies)
EF technical helpdesk
Technical Advisory Board
Consultation meetings (Physical and virtual*)
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Process
Product category definition
PEF Screening
PEFCR supporting study
Helps identify: •Most relevant life cycle stages •Most relevant processes
Definition of the product “model” based on representative product(s)
Determination of benchmarks
At this stage classes of performance are identified (if relevant and appropriate)
Identification of the most relevant environmental impacts
Draft PEFCR
Final PEFCR for review
21 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
Agenda
• Introduction – Joint Research Centre (JRC) and it’s role
• Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)
• PEF Category Rules (PEFCR) development
• Related activities
• Summary
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European Reference Life Cycle Database (ELCD)
• ELCD 3.0 launched January 2013: • 329 datasets
• 26 datasets on Metals and
mineralic materials: • Aluminium
• Steel
• Copper
• Minerals
• 38 ILCD entry-level compliant
datasets (review reports
available)
• ILCD recommended LCIA
methods (characterization
factors)
• New IT infrastructure
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ILCD DN: a web-based
infrastructure for better
availability of quality-
assured LCA data
• Open for all data providers: • International organization (International
databases) • States (National Databases) • Industry Associations (Sectorial Databases) • Business (Commercial Databases) • SMEs (few datasets on commercial
product/process) • Academics (few datasets on innovative
process) • …
• Non-centralised: data kept and
published on website of individual
owner/developer (under own conditions)
• Emphasis on quality of datasets :
quality requirements should be complied
with
• Ready to be launched soon with
initial partners.
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Source: EC - European Commission. 2010. Critical Raw Materials for the EU. Report of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Defining Critical Raw Materials. edited by EC. Brussels. http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/raw-materials/files/docs/report-b_en.pdf
Natural resources and Critical Raw Materials (CRM) Critical Raw Materials at EU level defined by two variables:
• Economic importance
• Supply risk - Concentration of supply – Governance – Recycling rate – substitutability
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Natural resources and Critical Raw Materials (CRM)
JRC Workshop on Security of Supply and
Scarcity of Raw Materials and links to
Sustainability Assessment and LCA:
1. Life Cycle Assessment for the management of CRMs:
I. LC inventories allow detecting the use of CRMs in supply chains
II. need to further investigate how to combine /integrate supply risk in the assessment of resources
2.Methodological framework for the impact assessment of natural resources
Available at: http://lct.jrc.ec.europa.eu/assessment/assessment/assessment/ResourceSecurity-SecuritySupply
26 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
Agenda
• Introduction – Joint Research Centre (JRC) and it’s role
• Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)
• PEF Category Rules (PEFCR) development
• Related activities
• Summary
27 EC Product Environmental Footprint | ICMM Materials Stewardship RT | October 3, 2013
Take home messages
• Product and Organisation EF are recommended methods by the EC
• ~3 year pilot phase starting October 2013 to develop product group and sector
specific guidance documents
• Objectives: more relevance, more consistency, more comparability, easier
application
• Companies and trade associations active are invited to openly and constructively
participate in the European pilot phase, possibility to lead pilots
• This European pilot phase would be an excellent chance to work collaboratively so
that, at the end of it, PEF and OEF could be modified to take into account the
lessons learned from the pilot phase
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Thank you for your attention!
Questions?
Further links and contact:
Joint Research Centre (JRC):
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/index.cfm
Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES):
http://ies.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
Sustainability Unit (H08):
http://ies.jrc.ec.europa.eu/the-institute/units/sustainability-assessment-unit.html
LCA/LCT website:
http://lct.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
Environmental Footprint guides:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/product_footprint.htm
Email: [email protected]
Acknowlegdments:
Part of the developments on the PEF have been financed by DG ENV by means of an Administrative Arrangement.